Artist To Check Out: Big Brutus - Stay (Single) / 'Tiny Box' (Album)

We're gong to boldly assume that Atlanta's Sean Bryant picked the moniker of Big Brutus based on the character of Brutus from Shakespeare's play, Julius Ceaser. A complex character, Brutus is known to be honourable and noble - traits that the best of us aspire to possess, but like Brutus, we often fall victim to being impractical and naive. We try to adhere to our moral codes, but in turn becomes hypocrites.

This is especially true when it comes down to relationships. We are so quick to offer other people advice to help them through their situation, but it is advice we almost always will never take ourselves. Big Brutus is very aware of the pitfalls of simply attempting to be human. So much so that his 10-track debut album 'Tiny Box' philosophises our fundamental flaws as human beings.

'Stay' is just one of many delightful songs that features on the album. The track opens with a mysterious vocal sample cut from the 1959 horror/sci fi film Plan 9 from Outer Space supported by cool electronic percussive beats and warm guitar strums. Big Brutus throws in some delightful strings and then his textured vocals call out with a slight country twang to an unrequited love.

Big Brutus combines a laid back rnb electronic feel with an orchestral / jazz beauty as well as incorporating a vintage 80s feel in its extended electric guitar arrangements. There's a really chilled out vibe to the majority of the track, before it builds in intensity and allows the instrumentation to display the emotion, taking the heat off of the lyrics and vocals that built up to this point.

A lot of thought, experimentation and delicacy has been put into the making of not only 'Stay' but the album as a whole. A place where Big Brutus poignantly hopes "one can find solace by putting memories away in their own tiny box, a place to revisit but never to return".